Are you looking to add a little love into your next school fundraising event?
February is a great time to host a fundraiser because the school calendar is typically free from other big events that might overlap and distract from your fundraiser. Bringing in the donations at the top of the year will also allow you to use them in the spring! Valentine’s Day is a fun way to offer your students a different type of event than they may do in the warmer months. There are so many opportunities to add a Valentine’s Day theme to your fundraiser! In this blog post, we provide 6 ideas to inspire your team.
1. A "Roses are Red" Read-Athon
Roses and Valentine’s Day go together like peanut butter and jelly. During your Read-Athon fundraiser, set up tables at drop off, pick up, lunchtime, and/or recess and sell single roses for students and parents to send to other students, teachers, and faculty.
Save money by partnering with a local floral shop or a flower farm and see if they will donate flowers or give you a percentage off for your fundraiser. On Valentine's Day, get volunteers to help hand out the flowers! The best part? Keep everything organized using our online Incentive Tracker and Volunteer Organizer when you use FundHub.
2. Candy + Card-Athon
What’s Valentine’s Day without handmade cards and candy gifts? One option is to raise donations and for each milestone ($50, $100, etc.) students earn a number of pre-cut cards + supplies. At the end of your donation period, host a craft day in your gym where students get to access the amount of cards and supplies they've earned and make handmade notes to send to family, friends, and donors.
Another idea is to offer digital valentine’s cards that can be downloaded, printed, and mailed. Students earn different designs they can download and sign as they raise donations for your event.
You could even assemble and sell card-making supply kits as an additional way to bring in money for your event! Ask local businesses (Hallmark stores, craft stores, gift shops) in your area to donate colorful stock paper and craft supplies to help offset the cost.
3. Valentine’s Day Dance-Athon
Another popular event for February is a Valentine's Day Dance-Athon! One of the best parts about a Dance-Athon is that you can do it indoors or outdoors - depending on where your school is located! Just crank up the sound system, clear out the gym or decorate an outdoor space, and let your students break a sweat while they break it down. Here are some tips to make it a success:
- Organize your Dance-Athon with 3-5 classrooms at a time for 30-40 minutes of dancing. This way your dance floor won’t become too crowded, and you can have different music for different age groups.
- Skip the DJ and save your money! All you need is a playlist (students could vote on popular songs) and a speaker.
- Add even more excitement with a Glow-in-the-Dark Dance-Athon! Either black out the windows in the gym or host your Dance-Athon in the evening outside and make it a family event.
- "Dancing through the Decades” is a great theme for a Spirt Week leading up to your event! Each day is a different decade and students can win prizes for their costumes and for meeting donation goals.
- Fun incentive idea: if the school hits their donation goal by your event date, the principal dresses up in a candy heart costume and slow dances with the mascot!
4. A Healthy Heart-Athon
Rather than sell chocolate or candy during Valentine's Day, why not try a fitness-based fundraiser with some heart healthy activities?! This fundraiser utilizes different stations in your gym on event day with fun fitness challenges like climbing rope, tire jumps, and quick sprints. Kids love the activities and the variation! Another idea is to do a Zumba dance party to promote cardio and heart health! With a Zumbathon, students get to dance and break a sweat during the event period! You can have dance breaks throughout the day or a dedicated hour where kids can dance to different styles of music.
5. Art-Athon
Valentine's Day is a great excuse to embrace creative activities while raising money for your school! Here are several ways to incorporate some artistic expression into your Valentine's Day fundraiser!
- Paint-Athon - Set up easels or big tables with art materials and let the kids get messy! Get sponsors from craft stores and local art galleries.
- Photography Contest - Host a scavenger hunt/picture-athon and create a photo contest for the best pics with prizes!
- Music-Athon - Create different stations outside or in the gym and have students experiment with different instruments. Get instructors from the local high school band to help teach students how to use the instruments. Host a Valentine's Day concert at the end of the event!
6. Kind-Athon
Valentine's Day is all about spreading love - so why not host a Kind-Athon? This is a school-wide movement to raise donations for acts of charity performed by your student body.
- A great way to raise funds for your Kind-Athon is to focus your acts of charity on local organizations. This will help get your community involved and it offers you free advertising since most of the organizations will be happy to spread the word about your fundraiser!
- Have students donate old toys, clothes, and electronics to gift to a local homeless shelter or goodwill center.
- Organize a field trip to a community food bank where students can learn about everything that goes into providing meals for those in need. A representative from the food bank may be willing to do a video tour that you can share on FB live.
- Invite local non-profits to enter their name into a raffle. At the end of your fundraising period, announce the winner and deliver the prize (could be $, goods, gift certificates, etc.)!
Fall in Love With Your School Fundraiser When You Partner with Get Movin'!
We would love to develop your Valentine's Day fundraising idea into a wildly successful event using our tools and expert knowledge. Use our online form to schedule a day and time for a free (and fast) FundHub tour to get started!
Credits:
Created with images by Syda Productions - "childhood, valentine's day and summer concept - happy little african american girl in heart shaped sunglasses over grey background" • Pixel-Shot - "Surprised African-American boy with bouquet of beautiful flowers on color background" • onlynuta - "Child is holding a Valentines day card in his hands. Small child made a Valentines day greeting card. Cute and simple paper crafts for kindergarten. Closeup" • Pixel-Shot - "Collage of photos with cute little children. Valentine's Day celebration" • Denira - "Kids painting red valetine heart card on table at home" • misskaterina - "Pink origami tulips and yellow origami narcissus on green pastel background. Top view. Paper cut art. Springtime seasonal background. hallo spring concept, banner, flyer, invitation, cute card" • deagreez - "Photo of pretty overjoyed little foxy lady hold large red paper heart figure classmate boy made holiday present surprise wear white t-shirt isolated purple background" • Alex - "Child's hand takes a valentine card from paper on a pink background. Composition Valentine's Day. Banner. Flat lay, top view"